


Time Can Change Me, But I Can't Change Time

by Wonderland_Reject



Category: South Park
Genre: Fluff, I promise it's not sad, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23382244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderland_Reject/pseuds/Wonderland_Reject
Summary: Cartman mysteriously disappeared from South Park sophomore year of high school, and as mysteriously as he disappeared, he was back senior year, but different. Kyle wants to get to the bottom of his disappearance and his strange behavior.
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Eric Cartman
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	Time Can Change Me, But I Can't Change Time

**Author's Note:**

> So I meant to write smut and this came out instead. Please enjoy!

Kyle’s life hadn’t changed much since elementary school. That’s not to say some things hadn’t changed, because they had. For one, Cartman disappeared sophomore year of high school, and no one had seen him around since then. Liane was still around, and when asked about her son, she just deflected and said he was with family elsewhere.

Cartman’s disappearance was at first a blessing for Kyle. Life was quiet, he didn’t have to argue for his dignity, or get into ridiculous schemes anymore, but therein lied the problem; Kyle was so bored. Sure, sophomore year was nice, but the summer between sophomore and junior year was a drag. He and Stan hung out more and played video games, they stopped talking to Kenny as much, and they half withdrew from the insanity of South Park. It was mind numbing, to say the least. 

A new group of kids picked up the slack that the four boys had left behind, and Ike and his friends became the new root of insanity in South Park. It was a relief at first, to suddenly no longer be the center of crazy for the tiny Colorado town, but just like hanging out with only Stan, Kyle grew bored. 

But, that was the new norm. Sophomore year came and went, as did junior year, and then the summer between junior and senior year came to pass as well. Kyle had finally accepted his new life, a new life without Eric Cartman in it, but then senior year of high school came, and suddenly, the new normal was broken. 

He was back. Just like Cartman left, without a word, he was back just the same, no explanation, no reason, he was gone one day and back the next. He had changed though, oh had he changed. Cartman no longer had his baby fat, or fat in general, instead, it had all converted into muscle, like a football player. He was tall too, probably six foot five, easily towering over Kyle’s five foot eleven and a half. His brunet hair had gone shaggy, and his evil smirk that Kyle knew so well had all but gone. 

Kyle first saw him talking to Kenny at his locker, and he had all but fainted at the sight. He noticed Kenny pointing at him, and Cartman looked up, but it was brief, and soon he was shrugging it off and going back to whatever conversation he had been having with Kenny. Kyle was having none of that. He stomped over to the two and tapped on Cartman’s shoulder. 

“I haven’t seen you in two years and I don’t even get a hello? Where the hell were you?” Kyle demanded, his hands placed firmly on his own hips. 

“I see you still haven’t gotten that sand out of your vagina Kyle,” Cartman sighed, but it was different. It didn’t sound menacing, or venomous, or anything at all. It sounded like he was reading from a script. 

Kyle brushed it off. “You didn’t answer the question. Where the hell have you been?”

“Has the jew boy been worried about me? How sweet.” 

There was a pause as Kyle waited for an answer, but Cartman apparently wasn’t budging. “Are you seriously not going to tell me?” He asked in disbelief. From behind Cartman, Kenny motioned for him to cut it out by running his fingers across his neck like he was slitting his throat. Kyle huffed and rolled his eyes, but turned around and left the strange conversation anyways. He was sure he’d get an answer soon enough.

He didn’t. It was as if Cartman was avoiding him, or maybe not, maybe it was just because he and Stan had grown apart from the rest of their friends. He and Stan had taken to hanging out with the football players as opposed to their old friends. At lunch, they sat with Clyde and Token instead of Kenny, Butters, and their group. Cartman favored their old friends instead.

It seemed to Kyle like the fight had been taken out of Cartman. He smiled and joked at lunch, but none of his anger was there. He watched as Kenny stole a cookie from Cartman’s lunch, and he didn’t say a word. Kyle could see Kenny’s concern too, and he resolved to talk to him about it later.

“Earth to Kyle, hello?” Stan asked, waving a hand in front of his best friend’s eyes.

“What?”

“I asked if you wanted to play basketball after school today? Are you okay man?”

Kyle blinked as he tried to ground himself again. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Did Cartman say something to you? I’ll punch him in the face if I need to, I have no trouble decking that fatass, even if he has muscled up.”

“He seems different, right? Like, something’s off,” Kyle said, finally voicing his troubles to his friend.

“Well yeah, but it seems like a good change, right? He seems healthy, he’s not bothering anyone or causing trouble yet…” Stan trailed off as he too frowned over at their old group of friends. 

Kyle glanced over and watched what Stan was looking at. Butter’s was leaning in to talk to just Cartman, and the large teen just seemed to shake off whatever the other said. He reached over to the blond’s tray and took his celery and carrots, and handed over his sandwich in exchange. Kyle looked back at Stan with a raised eyebrow. 

“You’re right, that’s too weird, even for him. Something must have happened,” Stan agreed. “Kenny stayed in contact with him while he was gone, he probably knows what’s up.”

“What do you mean? Someone was in contact with me and nobody said anything?” Kyle asked, incredulous.

“Well yeah, we’ve been friends since kindergarten, you don’t think he just disappeared, did you?” 

“That’s exactly what I thought!”

“No man, we just didn’t think you wanted to talk to him.”

“Of course I wanted to talk to him! He’s my friend too!” 

Stan just shrugged, ending the discussion. No wonder Cartman didn’t want to talk to him that morning, he must’ve thought he hated him. 

Later that day, as school was letting out, Kyle hurried over to Kenny’s pick up truck to talk to him before he could leave. It seemed he caught him just in time, as Kenny was throwing his bag in the passenger’s seat and about to climb in. “Kenny! Hey wait up!”

Kenny turned around and stepped down from his truck. “Hey dude, what’s up?”

“What’s going on with Cartman? He seems...off,” Kyle said, cutting straight to the point. He didn’t really want to dance around the issue. 

“Ah, I had a feeling…” Kenny paused and brushed a hand through his untamed, shaggy mane. “It’s not really my place to say.”

Kyle gave Kenny a long-suffering look. “I’m concerned and I know you are too.”

“Alright listen, Eric didn’t just disappear for no reason. Someone his mom brought home lashed out at him a few times, seriously injured him, and so he fucked off to live with some cousin or aunt or something in Denver. I don’t know what happened while he was there, but clearly something did.”

“Weren’t you talking to him?”

“Yeah, but he just got more distant. I didn’t hear from him at all for like three months until I got a message that just said he was coming home.”

This new information just confused Kyle further. What could have happened to Cartman? What was making him act like this? “Thanks Ken, we have to hang out soon.”

Kenny scoffed as he climbed into his truck. “Yeah, sure,” he said sarcastically as he slammed the door. 

What was that about? Kyle watched his friend drive away. One problem at a time. 

Kyle walked home, and on a split second decision, he decided to just go to the Cartman residence and try to figure out what the problem was at the root. Was it a stupid idea? Absolutely. Was he going through with it anyways? Fuck yeah. He approached the green house hesitantly. He hadn’t gone down the concrete path in years. He took a deep breath and knocked solidly on the door. 

Liane answered. “Hello Kyle, I haven’t seen you in awhile. How are you doing sweetie?”

“I’m alright. Is Cartman home?”

“I think he’s actually up at Stark’s Pond, he mentioned having dinner up there.”

“Thanks Ms Cartman,” Kyle turned and headed back in the direction of the pond. He was getting to the bottom of this tonight. He didn’t want to let this problem fester for more than a day. 

It didn’t take long to get to Stark’s. He climbed the small incline to reach the lip of the pond, and there he saw Cartman, sitting on a blanket with a small picnic laid out. It was strange to see his childhood frenemy in such a calm context. He always pictured Cartman in a rage, but he supposed he wasn’t like that all the time. It was weirdest to see someone in such a romantic picnic setting by themself. 

“Cartman,” Kyle eventually said to call attention. 

The teen turned around and smiled slightly. “Hey, I had a feeling I’d see you. Kenny said you were asking about me.”

Kyle blinked. Where was this kindness coming from? “No more cold shoulder?”

“I know you’re going to keep bugging me until I talk to you.” He wasn’t wrong. “So, what do you want to know Jew? What’s got your panties so in a twist?”

“What’s wrong with you?” It sounded too harsh, too judgemental, so he backtracked. “What’s going on? You seem different.”

Cartman let out a loud sigh and laid down on the blanket. Kyle came and sat next to him on the blanket, though he stayed sitting upright. “It’s been two years, you seem different too.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Kyle said, pushing through his friend’s deflection.

“Kenny told me he told you why I left,” he started. 

Kyle stayed silent, waiting for more. 

“I tried to kill myself,” Cartman finally said simply. He held up a wrist with an ugly scar marring the middle, a fairly fresh scar. It could only be a few months old.

“Jesus Christ Cartman,” Kyle said in disbelief. He could feel his eyes flood with tears at the mere thought of a world without Eric Cartman. 

Cartman glanced up and rolled his eyes at his friend, but it was filled with affection instead of malice. “Oh don’t cry. I’m fine now.”

Kyle gave him a look of disbelief. He wasn’t acting okay.

“I’m seriously.” 

Kyle laughed at the Cartman-ism. He really had missed his fatass, racist, idiot of a friend. 

“I went to a ton of therapy, I’m on killer antidepressants, I’m okay now. I was just having a hard day trying to readjust to South Park. I knew everything was going to be different when I came back, it was just hard to actually face that.”

Kyle understood. He missed how it used to be too. He missed getting into trouble, he missed almost causing the end of the world on a bi-weekly basis, but they had to grow up. “I missed you dude.”

Cartman reached out and intertwined his fingers with Kyle. He was looking up at the sky again, lost in thought. 

Kyle was at first startled by the tender contact, but after a moment or two of the hand holding, he adjusted. He laid down next to his friend, keeping their fingers intertwined. He laid so the tops of their heads were touching, his curls mingling with Cartman’s slightly too long locks.

“I missed you too. I’m sorry I changed so much,” Cartman sighed finally.

This was a completely new Cartman. Kyle had to face that fact, as hard as it was. Old Cartman would never apologize, for anything, especially not himself, but this wasn’t old, kid Cartman. “Don’t do that,” Kyle sighed, squeezing their entwined hands.

“Do what?”

“Apologize for who you are.”

Cartman was quiet for another few moments. “You’re still a ginger Jew rat though, I see that hasn’t changed.”

Kyle laughed loudly and reached back with his free hand to slap Cartman’s chest. “Maybe you haven’t changed that much.”

Senior year, things had changed, for everyone, but they were for the better. The four boys were finally back together, and South Park was once again thrown into insanity that even the new troublemakers couldn’t match. Small changes were there too, like South Park’s first ever male prom queen, not to mention a gay couple winning prom king and queen (Cartman insisted on taking the queen title, which Kyle was happy to hand to his partner). 

Kyle and Cartman started dating in the middle of an argument. Per, their usual, they were arguing about something insignificant, and in the middle of the argument, Kyle got frustrated and pulled Cartman in for a kiss. The two agreed to date after that. They were truly the perfect pair, matching each other’s energy note for note. 

The boys eventually settled on a college town together. All four agreed on one city, and though they would attend different colleges, they all shared one house together, and they wrecked havoc in their wake. Life was good again, and certainly no longer boring. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I really hoped you like this little story. I've been involved in the South Park fandom for years, but I think this is the first thing I've actually written and published for it. I hope you liked it, hopefully I will actually get some smut out soon since that's what I meant to write.


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